UPDATE: Larry Baer’s reaction to Barry Bonds vote

UPDATE, 12:54 p.m.: I just talked to Giants president Larry Baer for his reaction to the Bonds vote:

“This was the decision. It’s difficult. There have been complications in determining Hall of Famers throughout history, and it was more intense this year for sure. I think over time we would hope he’d be considered to be another Giant in the Hall of Fame. We also understand the voters need to sort some things out. That’s what I feel.”

Baer said he had no problem with the process.

UPDATE: I’ve been getting some reaction to the Bonds vote.

Start with Jim Fregosi, a longtime player and manager in the majors, now an Atlanta Braves special assistant, who like Bonds graduated from Serra High on the Peninsula:

“I was a little surprised. I didn’t think he would get in the original ballot, and he and (Roger) Clemens really did not get the votes I thought they would. But it’s the first time out for both of them. For me, the numbers will go way up next year. I”m not saying they’re going to get in next year, but I believe their totals will rise.”

Fregosi thinks Bonds should get in: “For everything he’s done in his career, he is definitely a Hall of Famer.

“I don’t know if he belongs in the Serra High School Hall of Fame,” he joked.

Retired outfielder Darryl Hamilton, who played with Bonds in the Giants in the late 1990s: “I was a little disappointed. I don’t think it’s fair that the Baseball Writers Association of America decided that not only Bonds, but everybody in that era, should be punished for what they think somebody has done.

“I’m sure when you and I gone planet it’ll come out that there are guys already in the Hall who’ve done something. I think it’s very hypocritical to take a vote like this and not let anybody in the Hall this year. I think it’s ridiculous.”

Hamilton lives in Houston and does radio and TV.

ORIGINAL POST: Members of the Baseball Writers Association of America voted nobody into the Hall of Fame. Houston Astros catcher, second baseman and outfielder Craig Biggio came closest, getting 68.2 percent of the vote from the 569 writers who cast ballots.

Voters sent Barry Bonds a resounding message in his first year of eligibility. He got 36.2 percent of the vote, less than half of the 75 percent required for election.

The results suggest that the vast majority of writers indeed felt that any player believed to use performance-enhancing drugs is not worth of the Hall, at least on the first ballot. Roger Clemens fared only slightly better than Bonds with 37.6 percent of the vote. Sammy Sosa got 12.9 percent and Mark McGwire 16.9 percent, a drop from the 19.5 percent he got last year.

The only players besides Biggio to be checked on a majority of ballots were Jack Morris (67.7 percent, a slight uptick from last year), Jeff Bagwell (59.6), Mike Piazza (57.8 in his first year of eligibility) and Tim Raines (52.2 percent).

This marks the first election since 1996 that produced no new inductees.